I just read the CNN's report "MIT wins $40,000 prize in nationwide balloon-hunt contest" and it reminded me how much consumers love scavenger hunts. Marketers have known this fact for ages. We've seen many promotions aiming to engage a target in such a playful manner. In most cases, a big cash prize is the great incentive to participate in the hunt at any cost.
Well, the DARPA Network challenge quoted in the article and, more importantly, the web of incentives created the winning team can be used a source of inspiration to create an exciting opportunity for wireless companies, banks, beer brands and any other business willing and able to develop and leverage on social networks to build a brand and engage with consumers in Puerto Rico.
First, let’s summarize some details.
THE CHALLENGE
The DARPA Network Challenge, also known as the red balloon competition, offered $40,000 to the first one to report the exact location of 10 red, 8 foot, weather balloons placed across the continental USA.
THE WINNING STRATEGY
The MIT Team accomplished the mission in less than 9 hours with the help of over 4,600 people. No, they did not recruit 4,600 MIT students. The assistants were internet users that responded to an attractive invitation to share the big prize. The MIT Team created a web of incentives offering $2,000 (per balloon found) to the person that provided the exact location and lesser amount cash prizes to anyone in the chain that lead to inviting the person that provided the exact location.
Now, imagine this:
HYPOTHETICAL BRIEF:
- Client: a wireless company
- Main objective: generate increased use of text messaging, data downloads and wireless connection consumption for a period of 4 to 6 weeks
- Target: 18-49
- Budget: $100,000 (willing to leverage on co-marketing opportunities to maximize investment)
THE IDEA: A four to six weeks contest
1. Each week "x" number of items will be publicly “hidden” (accessible through main roads or avenues). These could be flags, inflatable items, billboards and/or bus shelter ads, you choose.
2. By Individual subscription, the first participant to report the exact location of all items, will win a prize and go to the final round.
3. For the final round you could use moving targets instead of the original items i.e. branded vans doing specific stops that will be documented to determine the final winner.
4. Since reality shows are "in", the winners of each round could work to build and strengthen their network, with the option to offer sharing their prize at their discretion. (Of course, client's legal department should fine tune this). A dedicated channel at You Tube would provide for them to publish video updates and receive video messages of fans showing their support.
5. The final round could start on a Saturday and in co-marketing with a TV station, radio network or an event producer (or all of them), general population could monitor the progress of the participants and rule for their favorites.
6. Certainly this could only be possible with the help of the IT people, who would kindly figure out the way to monitor and validate the veracity and trajectory of the social network that lead to collecting the information presented by the winner. Keep in mind that this could be accomplished using a computer, by phone or any other media that allows internet connection (ie. Cable company through TV or gaming consoles)
I know it sounds like a very high tech complicated event but it doesn't have to be. It's just like any regular promo except that instead of calls you would be using internet and social networking. And instead of GPS coordinates you can use street names or roadsigns to identify the exact location.
To make it even more relevant and unique, you can create a web "city" and design the contest around it to build unique targeted members’ data base. (I know, this layer adds at least $15,000 to the required budget but it desn't hurt to dream).
Well, that kind of sums it for now. Lucky for you, pickmybrain-pr blog reader, none of my current clients can take advantage of a big promo recommendation right now, so I'm sharing this idea in the hopes that it inspires you or motivate any of your clients. (Don't worry my dear clients, there's more where that came from.)
Now I look forward to see who's the first to “steal this”.
Final note: If you throw this idea in a brainstorming and, as it sometimes happen, someone else jumps in saying “That's exactly what I was thinking, I read the article too” and then repeats your idea word for word. You can discreetly recuperate the ownership of the idea by asking three tricky questions to validate if they in fact read the article. The questions are: “who created the challenge?”, “what is DARPA?”, “what was the event commemorated with this challenge?”.
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